Computer programmers believe they know how to build cryptographic systems that are impossible for anyone, even the U.S. government, to crack. So why can the NSA read your e-mail?

Last week, leaks revealed that the Web sites most people use every day are sharing users’ private information with the government. Companies participating in the National Security Agency’s program, code-named PRISM, include Google, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. During the 1990s, a “cypherpunk” movement predicted that ubiquitous, user-friendly cryptographic software would make it impossible for governments to spy on ordinary users’ private communications.

The government seemed to believe this story, too. “The ability of just about everybody to encrypt their messages is rapidly outrunning our ability to decode them,” a U.S. intelligence official told U.S. News & World Report in 1995. The government classified cryptographic software as a munition, banning its export outside the United States. And it proposed requiring that cryptographic systems have “back doors” for government interception.

The cypherpunks won that battle. By the end of the Clinton administration, the government conceded that the Internet had made it impossible to control the spread of strong cryptographic software. But more than a decade later, the cypherpunks seem to have lost the war. Software capable of withstanding NSA snooping is widely available, but hardly anyone uses it. Instead, we use Gmail, Skype, Facebook, AOL Instant Messenger and other applications whose data is reportedly accessible through PRISM.

And that’s not a coincidence: Adding strong encryption to the most popular Internet products would make them less useful, less profitable and less fun.

“Security is very rarely free,” says J. Alex Halderman, a computer science professor at the University of Michigan. “There are trade-offs between convenience and usability and security.”

This links to a Very Funny youtube video I think has potential to go viral (among microbiologists). It is created by a happy customer, and shows his frustration during a 36 hour to find out which micro-organism causes an infection. With his new Bruker MALDI biotyper mass spectrometer this takes only 2(!) minutes(!).

Faced with the incomprehensible scale of worldwide mega-urbanization, observers have alternately fallen back on sheer numbers or city comparisons to drive home the speed at which cities in the developing world are growing.

BBC News N Korea 'removes' missiles from east coast launch site BBC News A report from South Korea's Yonhap news agency, citing an unnamed senior government source, backed that up, saying Pyongyang appeared to have lifted its highest combat alert...

La prensa Dems, GOP blast gov't surveillance of news agency La prensa The seizure was a "massive and unprecedented intrusion" into news-gathering activities, AP President Gary Pruitt said Monday in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder.

What was your most memorable moment of the 2012 World Cup? Was it Steve Smith's first ever World Cup win? Was it Emmeline Ragot's huge crash in Windham? Or was it the site of World Cup stalwart Rob Warner in a ...

Russia continues to send mixed signals over its stance in support of the Syrian regime, with President Vladimir Putin hinting that President Bashar al-Assad's downfall is likely even as unconfirmed reports indicate Russia is shipping high-tech...

Computer programmers believe they know how to build cryptographic systems that are impossible for anyone, even the U.S. government, to crack. So why can the NSA read your e-mail?

Last week, leaks revealed that the Web sites most people use every day are sharing users’ private information with the government. Companies participating in the National Security Agency’s program, code-named PRISM, include Google, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. During the 1990s, a “cypherpunk” movement predicted that ubiquitous, user-friendly cryptographic software would make it impossible for governments to spy on ordinary users’ private communications.

The government seemed to believe this story, too. “The ability of just about everybody to encrypt their messages is rapidly outrunning our ability to decode them,” a U.S. intelligence official told U.S. News & World Report in 1995. The government classified cryptographic software as a munition, banning its export outside the United States. And it proposed requiring that cryptographic systems have “back doors” for government interception.

The cypherpunks won that battle. By the end of the Clinton administration, the government conceded that the Internet had made it impossible to control the spread of strong cryptographic software. But more than a decade later, the cypherpunks seem to have lost the war. Software capable of withstanding NSA snooping is widely available, but hardly anyone uses it. Instead, we use Gmail, Skype, Facebook, AOL Instant Messenger and other applications whose data is reportedly accessible through PRISM.

And that’s not a coincidence: Adding strong encryption to the most popular Internet products would make them less useful, less profitable and less fun.

“Security is very rarely free,” says J. Alex Halderman, a computer science professor at the University of Michigan. “There are trade-offs between convenience and usability and security.”

La prensa Cuban VP says controlling the news is an illusion La prensa "The news today comes from all sides, good and bad, manipulated and truthful, it circulates over the (online) networks, it gets to everyone, people know all about it.

Explosives detonated by remote control in area where Imran Khan s party is forming a coalition government (RT @1twit4u: Pakistan: Taliban (Sunni) attack two Sunni mosques. At least 13 killed. No #peace for #Muslims.

Excerpted from this interesting article by Brian Solis:"While the amount of personal and ambient information churned out by SoLoMo is often inundating or even perplexing, it is this “big” data that will help businesses evolve and adapt in a new era of connected consumerism. More importantly, the study and understanding of relevant big data will shift organizations from simply reacting to trends to predicting the next disruption and adapting ahead of competition—thus, marking the shift from rigid to adaptive business models.

Without interpretation, insight and the ability to put knowledge to work, any investment in technology and resources is premature. But, by investing in human capital to make sense of would be ominous data, organizations can modernize the role of business intelligence to introduce a human touch.

The reality is though that how organizations connected with customers yesterday is not how customers will be served tomorrow. Meaning, the entire infrastructure in how we market, sell, help, and create now requires companies to not only study data and behavior but also change how it thinks about customers.

I refer to the confluence of data and interpretation as the human algorithm—the ability to humanize technology and data to put a face, personality, and voice to the need and chance for change. Data tells a story, it just needs help finding its rhythm and rhyme.

The human algorithm is part understanding and part communication. The ability to communicate and apply insights internally and externally is the key to unlocking opportunities to earn relevance. Beyond research, beyond intelligence, the human algorithm is a function of extracting insights with intention, humanizing trends ad possibilities and working with strategists to improve and innovate everything from processes to products to overall experiences.

The idea of the human algorithm is to serve as the human counterpart to the abundance of new social intelligence and listening platforms hitting the market every day. Someone has to be on the other side of data to interpret it beyond routine..."

Excerpted from this interesting article by Brian Solis:"While the amount of personal and ambient information churned out by SoLoMo is often inundating or even perplexing, it is this “big” data that will help businesses evolve and adapt in a new era of connected consumerism. More importantly, the study and understanding of relevant big data will shift organizations from simply reacting to trends to predicting the next disruption and adapting ahead of competition—thus, marking the shift from rigid to adaptive business models.

Without interpretation, insight and the ability to put knowledge to work, any investment in technology and resources is premature. But, by investing in human capital to make sense of would be ominous data, organizations can modernize the role of business intelligence to introduce a human touch.

The reality is though that how organizations connected with customers yesterday is not how customers will be served tomorrow. Meaning, the entire infrastructure in how we market, sell, help, and create now requires companies to not only study data and behavior but also change how it thinks about customers.

I refer to the confluence of data and interpretation as the human algorithm—the ability to humanize technology and data to put a face, personality, and voice to the need and chance for change. Data tells a story, it just needs help finding its rhythm and rhyme.

The human algorithm is part understanding and part communication. The ability to communicate and apply insights internally and externally is the key to unlocking opportunities to earn relevance. Beyond research, beyond intelligence, the human algorithm is a function of extracting insights with intention, humanizing trends ad possibilities and working with strategists to improve and innovate everything from processes to products to overall experiences.

The idea of the human algorithm is to serve as the human counterpart to the abundance of new social intelligence and listening platforms hitting the market every day. Someone has to be on the other side of data to interpret it beyond routine..."

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